Dual cameras for wider FOV?

comadose

Member
Joined
May 16, 2019
Messages
99
Reaction score
17
Location
Earth
Country
United Kingdom
Anyone tried having two cameras up front or at the back to get a wider FOV? Like this:

1590507020370.png

That's based on 130 degree FOV cameras. Potentially you could capture most of the sides as well, great for door dingers with parking mode.

The down side is front facing video will be a bit weird but more than adequate to assign blame in a crash.

I know you can get 360 cameras but the image quality is crap and they capture the passengers which I don't really want.
 
Doesn't work very well because the bit that overlaps is a stereo view, the lenses are not in the same place, so you can't join them accurately except for at one specific distance - if the car in front is at the wrong distance you either gain or lose letters on the licence plate! Also, lenses are always a bit distorted towards the corners, even perfect ones, so again it is hard to join and get a sharp result, just where the number plate of the car in front/behind is. Also the best part of the image from any camera is always the centre, and that is being wasted on A-pillars and C-pillars! Also, you always end up with a different exposure on right and left depending on what side the sun is, which spoils the joined image.

It can be done, I've done it with the Blueskysea B2W which conveniently allows you to rotate the lenses into that position, and the results were quite good, but there was a join where it was not wanted, along with the other problems above.

A much better plan is to have a normal front and back view, then add in a taxi-cam view from the front looking back, plus another from the back looking forward, then you fully cover the sides, except for what is blocked by pillars and heads, plus you fully cover the inside.

Try modifying your drawing to show that and you will see what I mean...
 
Last edited:
Doesn't work very well because the bit that overlaps is a stereo view, the lenses are not in the same place, so you can't join them accurately except for at one specific distance - if the car in front is at the wrong distance you either gain or lose letters on the licence plate! Also, lenses are always a bit distorted towards the corners, even perfect ones, so again it is hard to join and get a sharp result, just where the number plate of the car in front/behind is. Also the best part of the image from any camera is always the centre, and that is being wasted on A-pillars and C-pillars!

It can be done, I've done it with the Blueskysea B2W which conveniently allows you to rotate the lenses into that position, and the results were quite good, but there was a join where it was not wanted, along with the other problems above.

A much better plan is to have a normal front and back view, then add in a taxi-cam view from the front looking back, plus another from the back looking forward, then you fully cover the sides, except for what is blocked by pillars and heads, plus you fully cover the inside.

Try modifying your drawing to show that and you will see what I mean...

I see what you mean. I want to avoid recording the inside of the car for privacy reasons. So really you need three cameras, one forward and one for each side :unsure:

Or maybe a 360 camera that only comes on in parking mode, not when driving. I'd be happy with a button that turns it on and off as I only need it when parked away from home.
 
Just move the front taxicam back a little, I had the A129 IR interior lens stuck to my interior lamp cluster, and from there it did not see the driver or front seat passenger, unless they moved unusually close to the centre, however it did mean the front seat headrests were no longer blocking the view out the rear side windows. From there it would record license plates as they came passed.

If you are going to cover 360 it is inevitable that the driver will be in one of the views, and the view from the rear taxicam where you can only see the back of his headrest might be the best?
 
Anyone tried having two cameras up front or at the back to get a wider FOV? Like this:

View attachment 51799

That's based on 130 degree FOV cameras. Potentially you could capture most of the sides as well, great for door dingers with parking mode.

The down side is front facing video will be a bit weird but more than adequate to assign blame in a crash.

I know you can get 360 cameras but the image quality is crap and they capture the passengers which I don't really want.


Yes, dual front camera schemes have been done using Mobius cameras. Don't know where the particular threads are located at the moment but two different schemes have been tried with reasonable success. In one, two cameras are mounted next to each other on a single mounting plate and are aimed outwards to just barely overlap their FOV in the center. The correct choice of lens focal length makes a big difference on how well this works. You can combine both videos in post processing or use them separately.

The other scheme involved mounting two Mobius cameras on each A-pillar facing towards the opposite sides of the vehicle, aimed to just overlap in the center.

Neither of these approaches is ideal but they work.

The best method for 360º coverage is to use 4 cameras or two dual channel cams. With the correct lenses you can obtain full 360º with significant overlap of the FOV of each adjacent camera which I've personally found to be quite useful.

You can see an older example of this scheme HERE.

That lengthy five year old thread "Is there such thing as a side view dashcam?" has a lot of good information and discussion to peruse if you are thinking of experimenting with lateral facing (as well as rear facing) cameras.
 
Thanks. I was hoping to avoid having cameras and wires all over the place just by having multiple cameras in the same place.

If I could get at the wiring for the car's built in cameras that would be ideal but I'm not keen on dismantling my new car looking for them. Maybe I can get a service manual.

In comparison dashcam installs are relatively easy.

Kind of amazed no one makes a dashcam like this, three lens stitched in software...
 
Kind of amazed no one makes a dashcam like this, three lens stitched in software...
For dashcam video, stitching only destroys detail, it can't create any information, so it is worse than pointless.
 
Well okay, but just 3 lenses on one unit would be nice.
 
Well okay, but just 3 lenses on one unit would be nice.
3 channel cameras are available, and some decent ones in development:
 
Thanks. I was hoping to avoid having cameras and wires all over the place just by having multiple cameras in the same place.

If I could get at the wiring for the car's built in cameras that would be ideal but I'm not keen on dismantling my new car looking for them. Maybe I can get a service manual.

In comparison dashcam installs are relatively easy.

Kind of amazed no one makes a dashcam like this, three lens stitched in software...

If you want side or rear coverage there's really no way to avoid cables. There are some dual channel cameras out now and more on the way with small individual lens modules attached to a base unit. Something like that might work for you. Cables can be hidden relatively easily even if it is a bit of work.
 
TBH i think we will see 360 dashcams soon, that are actually pretty nice, but one such camera on the windscreen will not give you a proper 180 degree view, A pillars and front seats passengers and looking out the car windows are going to have a impact on the side view.
So i would rather have dedicated side cameras like i also have ( 1 wire to each camera - more to the main unit stored in a convenient place )
I dont think anyone are going to do a 2 camera that stitch the footage together, way more easy to just do a 360 camera.
When i installed my side cameras it did take me a couple of hours as i went through the rear door wire grommet to the B pillar with the USB wire to the camera, so figuring out how to take door trim off ( problematic / harder as my rear doors have old school manual windows )
 
3 channel cameras are available, and some decent ones in development:

Yeah, just it's the wrong three channels
 
There were one or two very old dashcams which had two front lenses facing outward. The overlapped section was horrible and the total FOV wasn't much more than the usual today.

Phil
 
Back
Top